Postgame Wrap: Therrific

By Daniel Zarchy, on June 2nd, 2012

Ignoring for just a moment the last half inning of last night’s game, the whole thing was pretty spectacular. Madison Bumgarner cruised like he was facing the Rangers on Halloween, but with better control. Melky Cabrera had two hits, Posey had a key hit after falling behind 0-2, and even Brett Pill stole a base.

But man, Ryan Theriot. Three hits and a walk, and his hits came in key spots. Theriot never promised to deliver all that much offensively, but his beginning of the year was especially awful, when he put up a .179/.217/.196 line in 20 games (61 PAs). Now, Theriot had the age-old “I was injured all along” excuse, but in this case it may have been legitimate. In the six games since he’s been back, Theriot has hit .381/.458/.524 with three walks, and two of his eight hits for extra bases. This seems a bit unsustainable, of course, but hopefully it means that Theriot’s overcome what ailed him before. If Theriot can even manage to put up his career averages of .281/.342/.352 (83 OPS+) from this point on, it would be a substantial upgrade over Emmanuel Burriss or even Joaquin Arias. If Gregor Blanco, Melky Cabrera and Angel Pagan all keep up what they’re doing, an upgrade from the second-base position would be huge. Theriot.

Now back to the ninth inning. I’m totally fine with how Bochy managed that inning. Given the roll Bumgarner was on, he had the right to start the ninth inning, just like Bochy had the right to pull him after the two leadoff hits. I still have all the faith in the world in Santiago Casilla, and I’m crossing my fingers that he’s okay. But man, I’m really glad that we have Javier Lopez.

Brandon Watch 2012:

Belt:

Crawford: Good defense, an intentional walk, and a single up the middle. Also, defense.

Stats of the Day:

3: Players on the Cubs who I have heard of

11: Strikeouts by Madison Bumgarner, a season-high

4: Times I wished Matt Szczur was playing

2: Double plays grounded into by Steve Clevenger. He did his best to get a third, but didn’t hit the ball quite hard enough to Brett Pill in the ninth inning